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Real Skies for Sky Replacement and Compositing

Every sky here was photographed overhead by a real photographer: sunsets, storms, overcast days, haze and clouds seen from a plane. Vibrant Skies and Clouds has 400 skies at up to 7952 × 5304, already cleaned of trees and power lines. Skies and Clouds sorts 439 skies by weather. Find your sky replacement photos below.

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Start from the light in your photo, not the sky you like

A sky replacement fails when the new sky disagrees with the ground. Before you choose a sky, look at your foreground and answer three questions:

  • Where is the sun? Look at the shadows. The bright part of the new sky should be on the same side as the light.
  • How hard is the light? Sharp shadows need a clear or broken sky. Soft or missing shadows need overcast or haze.
  • What color is the light? Warm highlights on buildings need a warm sky. Cool, flat light needs a grey or pale blue one.

Choose the sky that fits these answers, even if another one is more dramatic. Then match the horizon: a sky shot with the camera pointing up will not fit a photo taken at eye level.

Skies sorted by weather

Photographer Andrii Vasyliev shot a large series of skies in Ukraine on a Nikon D3100, mostly at 4608 × 3072 pixels. Each pack covers one kind of weather, so you can pick by the light you need:

Many frames in this series include a city skyline along the bottom. That helps you judge the scale of the clouds against buildings, and it shows you how the light of that sky falls on real streets.

Cleaned skies and wide panoramas

Vibrant Skies and Clouds by AVahur was shot in Finland over several years on a Sony A7R II. The skies are cleaned of trees and power lines and color corrected, so they are ready to drop into a composite. Folders are Blue, Golden and Stormy. Most frames are full resolution (42 MP), and the pack adds 22 panoramas up to 20000 × 5000 pixels.

Skies and Clouds, from the same photographer, has 439 photos in four folders: Blue Sky (61), Heavy Clouds (204), Stormy Sky (95) and Sunset Sky (79). It also includes panoramas up to 180 degrees and 28,000 pixels wide, which are useful for wide-angle shots and long camera pans.

Above the clouds

For aerial shots, flight scenes or fantasy worlds above a cloud layer, you need clouds seen from above:

For more on cloud shapes and weather, see our cloud reference photos. If you also need to relight the ground to match, our lighting reference shows the same places at different times of day.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use these skies in client photos, such as real estate or architecture renders?

Yes. Every license is royalty-free, covers unlimited projects and never expires. Check the content type on the product page: Commercial photos can be used for nearly any purpose, while Editorial photos can't be reproduced directly in advertising or products for sale.

Are the skies already masked?

Most frames show open sky, so you need little masking. Vibrant Skies and Clouds is cleaned of trees and power lines. In the packs with a city skyline at the bottom, crop the skyline away or mask it out if you only need the sky.

What resolution do I need for sky replacement?

At least the width of your final image, plus room to move the sky around. Most of the Vasyliev series is 4608 × 3072. Vibrant Skies and Clouds is mostly 42 MP, and both AVahur packs include much wider panoramas for large or wide images.

Why use a photographed sky instead of a generated one?

A generated sky can look good on its own and still have light that doesn't match any real weather. A photographed sky had a real sun behind it, so the light and cloud shapes are consistent. That makes it easier to match to your foreground.